Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Value Fund” fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. US Treasury yields saw a significant decline towards the end of 2023, which led to a massive surge in the last two months of the year for US stocks. The fund’s Investor Class ARTLX, Advisor Class APDLX, and Institutional Class APHLX returned 9.75%, 9.75%, and 9.79% respectively, in the quarter compared to a 9.50% return for the Russell 1000 Value Index. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the strategy to know its best picks in 2023.
Artisan Value Fund featured stocks like Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) in the fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois, Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) provides a portfolio of healthcare products. On March 12, 2024, Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) stock closed at $42.89 per share. One-month return of Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) was 8.20%, and its shares gained 12.19% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) has a market capitalization of $21.781 billion.
Artisan Value Fund stated the following regarding Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
“Our biggest full-year detractors included energy holdings Schlumberger and EOG and 2023 purchases Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) and Dollar General. Baxter provides essential products in renal care, medication delivery, advanced surgery, clinical nutrition, pharma and acute therapies. When we purchased it, the stock traded near its cheapest valuation in a decade due to pessimism regarding raw material costs, supply chain issues, semiconductor availability and foreign exchange headwinds that all pressured earnings and free cash flow. However, none of these are permanent conditions. Additionally, Baxter is selling several non-core operations, which should raise cash and simplify the business longer term. Despite its current growth challenges, we believe the company should return to robust free cash flow generation as supply chain pressures abate. Baxter also meets our criteria for sound financial condition due to its high interest coverage and well-termed out debt on the balance sheet.”
Patients connected to dialysis machines in a hospital ward, highlighting the company’s dialysis and intravenous therapies.
Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. At the end of the fourth quarter, Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) was held by 44 hedge fund portfolios, compared to 41 in the previous quarter, according to our database.
We discussed Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) in another article and shared the list of fastest growing biotech companies in the US. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2023 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
